Category Archives: Roberto De Mattei

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“In the case of a Pope, to be considered a saint he must have exercised heroic virtue in performing his mission as Pontiff, as was for example, the case for Saint Pius V or Saint Pius X. Well, as far as John XXIII, I am certain after careful consideration, that his pontificate was objectively harmful to the Church and so it is impossible to speak of sanctity for him” – Professor Roberto de Mattei

Catholic Family News Interviews Professor Roberto de Mattei:On the proposed April 27 Canonizationsof Popes John XXIII and John Paul II

Vatican II opened more than fifty years ago on October 11, 1962. Since it ended in 1965, the Council has been written about in countless books, articles, scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers all over the world. Things said and done since the council, in the name of the council and in opposition to it, have affected the lives of everyone living since that time.

To the ongoing debate Roberto de Mattei offers the contribution not of a theologian but of an historian. As with any significant historical event, it is only after considerable time has elapsed that a fuller story of exactly what happened in those years before, during, and after “the event” can be engagingly told and wisely summarized. Professor de Mattei’s genius lies in the application of a lucid, literate and philosophical mind to thorough scholarly research and mountains of documentation. From this framework he has presented us with a story; a story of an event, a previously unwritten story that has been begging to be told for many years. The presentation is based on his book, “The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story,” and will answer the question, “What happened at the Council?”

The author will be signing copies of “The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story,” which will be available for sale.

Roberto de Mattei teaches Church History at the European University of Rome, where he is the head of the Faculty of Historical Sciences. He collaborates with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, and the Holy See awarded him the insignia of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great in recognition of his service to the Church. He is president of the Lepanto Foundation, and edits the magazine Radici Cristiane.

(Rome) The well-known exorcist Gabriele Amorth affirmed recently the importance of exorcism in a lecture evening of Lepanto Foundation in Rome. Father Amorth, an exorcist in the diocese of the Pope since 1986, is a student of Father Candido Amantini, another well-known exorcist, whose beatification process is underway. Father Amorth is also Honorary President of the International Association of Exorcists. The exorcist had choice words for those who deny the existence of the devil, especially the clergy, who do not oppose adequately de-Christianization of society. Because the author of this de-Christianization was the devil himself.

Father Amorth leveled sharp criticism in this context against bishops who appoint no Exorcist and “thereby inflict serious damage to souls.” Satan is trying to raise the people against God. He entices them to deny the truth and rebel against God’s law, “even though the law of God is the best and ideal law for the people.” The “anti-faith statement” of the devil and his followers can be summarized in three points: “Do what thou wilt”, “no one has to decide on you” and “you are your own God.”

The devil “knows us, he circles us and tempts us in our weaknesses: one must therefore know his own weaknesses and avoid the dangers that are offered today in various ways, especially through television and the Internet”. The well-known exorcist warned against spiritualistic practices, each contact with magicians, soothsayers and all who claim to dispose supernatural powers or a “secret knowledge”. The vast majority of them are charlatans, so you should avoid them so as not to “stupidly be hoodwinked and to have been cheated out of one’s own money.” But some have “actually been able to get in touch with negative forces” and it’s never done for the benefit of the people.

It works against this “to have a fundamentally sincere reverence for sacred images and objects,” said Amorth. “Decisive” it is “that in everything and for everyone that the answer to all our questions can only be God, because all things were created through Him and to Him,” warns the exorcist of the Diocese of Rome.